A sea turtle from the tropics has been found a long way from home and in frigid waters near Port Alberni, B.C. – via Herp Digest

The olive ridley sea turtle, nicknamed 'Berni Stranders,' had a body temperature of only 11 C

CBC News Oct 03, 2019

The olive ridley sea turtle showed signs of hypothermia when it was found off the coast of Port Alberni, B.C. on Sept. 30, 2019. (Vancouver Aquarium)

A sea turtle from the tropics has been found a long way from home and in frigid waters near Port Alberni, B.C.

The olive ridley sea turtle, nicknamed Berni Stranders, had a body temperature of just 11 C, nine degrees colder than its ideal body temperature, according to the Vancouver Aquarium.

The adult, male turtle was hypothermic or cold-stunned, said head veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena.

When that happens, a turtle's heart and respiration rate will slow and it becomes unable to swim or look for food, a statement from the aquarium said. 

The turtle is currently being treated at the aquarium's Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.

"Once he's stronger and showing signs of responsiveness, staff will place him in a pool set at the same temperature as his body for short periods of time," said rescue centre manager Lindsaye Akhurst in a news release.

"Berni has a long road to recovery but he is responding to treatment," she said. 

In an interview Thursday on CBC's On The Coast, Akhurst said staff are slowly increasing the temperature in the room at the aquarium where Stranders is rehabilitating, and that he perks up during his scheduled swims.

"It's a fairly slow process," said Akhurst (no pun intended).

Stranders measures just about one meter long and just over half a meter wide.

'He's very handsome," said Akhurst.

Rescuers at the Vancouver Aquarium's Marine Mammal Rescue Centre are trying to nurse the olive ridley sea turtle back to health, after it was found far from home in B.C. on Sept. 30, 2019. (Vancouver Aquarium)

It's still not clear why the turtle showed up so far north. The aquarium said it's only the fourth of its species to be recorded in B.C. waters in about 20 years.

Olive ridley turtles can typically be found in the Gulf of California, as well as reefs in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Central and South America.

Stranders was spotted by members of the public who called Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Fisheries staff transported the turtle to Parksville, B.C. where aquarium staff collected him and moved him to Vancouver.

Haulena said it could be due to a warm area of water in the Pacific Ocean called the blob or higher than average sea temperatures in general. 

Olive ridley sea turtles are fairly abundant worldwide but are considered vulnerable because they nest in only a few places, according to the World Wildlife Foundation. 

California family find mountain lion lounging in their bathroom

The big cat wandered into the home in the Sierra Nevada foothills and took refuge in the bathroom before being coaxed out

Vivian Ho in San Francisco

Wed 18 Sep 2019 21.15 BSTLast modified on Thu 19 Sep 2019 19.35 BST

In the photo, the lounging mountain lion looks almost shocked, as if caught mid-exclamation while yelling, “Get out!” Given the setting – a bathroom in a northern California home – no one could blame the big cat for wanting some privacy.

But in this case, it was the lion that was the unwanted guest. On Monday night it wandered into a family home in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 50 miles outside of Yosemite National Park.

The mountain lion banged through the front screen door of the home in Sonora, breezing past both the home’s residents before fully comprehending what it had done, said Andrea Benson, a sergeant with the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s office.

The lion ran deeper into the house once it spotted the residents, ending up in a bathroom, and the residents quickly shut the door behind it, Benson said.

They went into the basement and called for help, while the mountain lion appeared to take the opportunity to knock around toiletries. The sheriff’s department and the state department of fish and wildlife responded, using a ladder to get a peek – and a photo – of the mountain lion in the second-story bathroom.

With the residents’ permission, the sheriff’s deputies broke the window and worked with the wildlife department to coax the animal out.

“The officers were pounding on the wall to get his attention, and shining the light on the window area to show that there was a path to escape,” Benson said. “He finally was able to jump out the window.”

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Ecologists find bush dog, native of South America, in remote central Costa Rica

Trail cam documents unexpected, most northerly sighting of pack-hunting canids

Date:  May 23, 2019

Source:  University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Wildlife ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who are studying different conservation practices in the forests of Costa Rica recently made a startling discovery on a wildlife camera trap -- wild bush dogs documented farther north than ever before and at the highest elevation.

Doctoral student Carolina Saenz-Bolaños is in Costa Rica comparing land use, management techniques, their effects on species presence and abundance, and human attitudes in four different areas in the rugged Talamanca Mountains: a national park, an adjacent forest reserve, an indigenous territory and nearby unprotected areas.

She and her advisor, professor of environmental conservation Todd Fuller at UMass Amherst, with others, report in an article today in Tropical Conservation Science the new, repeated sightings of bush dogs (Speothos venaticus) on trailcams well outside the limit of their previously known range on the Costa Rica-Panama border. The dogs are native to South America but are considered rare and are very seldom seen even there, the two ecologists point out.

Fuller says, "They aren't supposed to be there, but Carolina's work shows they really are, and they seem to be doing well. Not only is this wild dog rare wherever it is found, but this mountain range is very remote, with very little access. They could have been there before and we wouldn't know it. So we're documenting them with this report."

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Hoodwinker sunfish: Rare fish washes up on California beach

2 March 2019

A rare fish thought to live in the southern hemisphere has washed up in Santa Barbara, California.

The appearance of the seven-foot (2.1m) hoodwinker sunfish has baffled scientists, who question how the fish made it so far from its home waters.

An intern at the University of California spotted the animal at the Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve.

It took researchers several days to properly identify the creature, which was only discovered in 2014.

Photos of the giant fish first appeared on the Coal Oil Point Facebook page, and experts from around the world weighed in to help identify the creature.

The animal was named "hoodwinker" after its discovery after eluding researchers for so many years.

Marianne Nyegaard, a marine scientist who found and named the fish, told CNN she "nearly fell out of my chair" when she saw the pictures of the beached traveller.

"When the clear pictures came through, I thought there was no doubt," she said. "It's intriguing what made this fish cross the equator."

The hoodwinker is larger and sleeker than other species of sunfish, weighing up to two tonnes (2,000kg).

They reportedly favour more temperate waters, such as off the coast of Chile or New Zealand.

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What polar bears in a Russian apartment block reveal about the climate crisis

Arctic bears are being driven off their normal migration routes and into human habitation. We should feel pity – and fear

Jonathan Watts

Mon 11 Feb 2019 15.08 GMTLast modified on Mon 11 Feb 2019 20.09 GMT

Polar bears prowling around a children’s playground. Polar bears lumbering along the corridors of apartment blocks and offices. Polar bears descending on a sleepy Russian town in their dozens.

To state the obvious: polar bears should not be wandering into human habitation, and certainly not in these numbers. That they are doing so in Belushya Guba shows how they are being driven off their normal migration routes and hunting trails by a changing climate. This has long been predicted – with the Arctic heating twice as fast as the rest of the planet, winter temperatures are rising and the sea ice – which is the primary habitat of polar bears – is shrinking.

In this small town in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, authorities have declared a state of emergency (a reasonable precaution after spotting an unprecedented 52 polar bears). Fences have been erected around school playgrounds and locals have tried to drive them away with warning shots and explosions. All to no avail. Many residents are afraid to leave their homes. Workers are reportedly being bused to their offices in military vehicles.

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Dozens of Seals Turn Up on Icy Streets in Canada. Here's Why.

By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor | January 11, 2019 03:12pm ET

An icy town in Newfoundland is dealing with some surprise visitors: a pod of around 40 harp seals.

The seals are stuck 4 to 5 miles (6 to 8 kilometers) from the ocean, according to local fishing guide and bar owner Brendon FitzPatrick, who shared photographs of the animals on Twitter. The animals likely swam into inland bays and streams chasing fish and got disoriented, FitzPatrick wrote on Twitter, adding that this is the highest number of seals seen on shore in the area.

"In the beginning, they were kind of aggressive," Sheila Fitzgerald, the mayor of Roddickton-Bide Am, told NPR. As the days have dragged on and the fish in the town's brooks have become less plentiful, the seals have become more lethargic, Fitzgerald added.

Roddickton-Bide Am is a town of just under 1,000 people situated near the northern tip of Newfoundland. The area is a common wintering site for harp seals. Officials from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DPO) told the newspaper The Northern Pen that there is little offshore ice near northeastern Newfoundland this year, possibly part of the overall trend of major Arctic melting. With limited sea ice to rest on, the seals may be hauling out closer to the coast, which makes them more vulnerable to following streams inland and getting stuck when streams and bays ice over.

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No sign of 'distressed sperm whale' in loch

4 January 2019

A search of a Highlands loch has found no sign of a sperm whale believed to be in difficulty earlier this week.

The animal, which has been estimated to be up to 9m (30ft) long, was reported to have been tangled in rope in Loch Eriboll, near Durness, Sutherland.

Coastguard and British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) volunteers and Scottish SPCA officers have been monitoring the whale.

The whale was reported to the coastguard on Wednesday.

BDMLR said it had been unable to confirm if the animal was caught in rope, adding that the it might have been ill or injured.

'Lost its course'

A team from the organisation had hoped to get to Loch Eriboll on Thursday with specialist equipment, but it was delayed.

A search of the loch for the whale began at first light on Friday and continued until late afternoon. The BDMLR team will remain on standby over the weekend.

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Why alligators, wolves and mountain lions are turning up in odd places

24 October 2018

Predators are thriving in places they shouldn't, revealing some serious misunderstandings about their behaviour and how to protect them

By Isabelle Groc

WHEN Brian Silliman found himself face to face with an alligator, he thought he was seeing a ghost. It was night and he was knee deep in mud in a salt marsh in Georgia, searching for crabs and snails. Alligators are freshwater reptiles, so Silliman was not expecting to come across one, but the pair of red eyes watching him was unmistakably real. Thinking fast, he shook a cage between him and the predator to scare it away. “That freaked me out,” he says.

The next morning, haunted by the encounter, Silliman, a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina, couldn’t stop wondering why the alligator was in the salt marsh. Returning to the site, he spotted more of them – and they seemed to be right at home. Diving into the scientific literature, he discovered that alligators are not the only predators found thriving in places where they are not supposed to live. It was a light-bulb moment. “I started re-evaluating everything I had been taught about large animals,” he says.

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Sighting of sperm whales in Arctic a sign of changing ecosystem, say scientists

Rare sighting in the Canadian Arctic as a growing number of species expand their range into warming waters

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

Mon 5 Nov 2018 17.03 GMTLast modified on Mon 5 Nov 2018 20.40 GMT

A rare sighting of sperm whales in the Canadian Arctic is the latest sign of a quickly changing ecosystem, say scientists, as a growing number of species expand their range into warming Arctic waters.

Brandon Laforest, a marine biologist with the World Wildlife Fund, and guide Titus Allooloo were working on a project monitoring the effect of marine traffic on the region’s narwhal population when they spotted the pair of large whales just outside Pond Inlet, a community at the northern tip of Baffin Island in September.

Video of the incident, released at the end of October, captures the second known sighting of sperm whales in the region. In 2014, hunters from Pond Inlet spotted them in the area.

At first, Allooloo and Laforest thought the dark shapes in the water were killer whales – another species that has become a frequent visitor to the waters as temperatures creep up. But the distinct shape of the dorsal fin surprised Allooloo – a veteran hunter.

“They’re not known by us, we don’t know too much about them,” Allooloo told the CBC.

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Rare, Blue Jellyfish-Like Creatures Wash Ashore in NJ, Puzzling Beachgoers

By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer | October 4, 2018 10:39am ET

Weird, brilliant blue creatures with feather-like tentacles are washing ashore on the beaches of New Jersey, surprising beachgoers who aren't used to seeing turquoise blobs dotting the shore, according to news reports.

These jellyfish-like critters are commonly known as blue buttons (Porpita porpita), but they aren't native to the Garden State. Instead, it appears that Hurricane Florence carried the tropical animals out of the Gulf Stream, a powerful current in the Atlantic Ocean, and pushed them northward up the East Coast.

"It's not something I've ever seen before, and I've been walking down that beach since I was 10 years old. I'm 55 now," Holly Horner, a professional wildlife photographer from Egg Harbor, New Jersey, told the Asbury Park Press, after spotting blue buttons on a beach in Brigantine last week. [In Photos: Spooky Deep-Sea Creatures]

Although they look like jellyfish, blue buttons are another type of creature (or rather, set of creatures) altogether. They fall into the scientific class Hydrozoa, whose members are each made up of colonies of hydroids — tiny predators that are related to jellyfish. The most famous hydrozoan is probably the Portuguese man o' War (Physalia physalis), which can deliver a venomous sting so powerful that it can kill fish and even injure humans, according to National Geographic.

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Are these humpback whales too close for comfort?

September 3, 2018 by Emily Arntsen, Northeastern University

As many as six humpback whales were spotted in Boston Harbor on Wednesday, a rare sight in the congested shipping port. But the whales probably weren't lost, according to Joseph Ayers, a professor at Northeastern's Marine Science Center in Nahant, Massachusetts. They were probably just looking for a snack.

"There appear to be a lot of bait fish in the area right now, like pogies, and that seems to be attracting the whales," he said. Ayers, who specializes in marine science and neurophysiology, said that whales are usually feeding whenever people see them close to shore.

Ayers said that in the past, he has seen humpbacks as close as "50 yards off the wharf in Nahant." But while it might be normal for these whales to come close to shore, it's not common for them to swim into Boston Harbor. In fact, Ayers said it could be quite dangerous.

"Boats are the biggest problem for whales. If a whale swims into the propeller of a boat, especially something as big as a shipping vessel, it could be deadly," he said. Since the whale sightings earlier this week, the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston has warned boaters to be aware of the animals.

Boaters might be able to avoid whales by steering clear of large flocks of birds because, according to Ayers, "Whenever you see a flock of birds, it means there are fish around." And where there are fish, there could be humpback whales.

Read more at:

There Be Dragons: 6-Foot-Long Lizard Terrifies Florida Family

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | August 31, 2018 12:47pm ET

A Florida family is afraid to use their swimming pool — and with good reason. Earlier this week, the family spotted a giant monitor lizard the size of an adult human lurking on their property.

The Lieberman family in Davie, Florida, discovered the uninvited visitor roaming around their backyard, Miami-Dade's Local 10 News ABC reported on Aug. 29. Parents Zack and Maria Lieberman told reporters that the lizard was so big, they feared for the safety of their two young children. [See The World's Most Bizarre Lizards]

The enormous reptile — which was identified as an Asian water monitor (Varanus salvator) — measures approximately 6 feet (2 meters) long, according to Local 10 News. Over several days, the scaly invader made repeated appearances near the Lieberman home, but has thus far managed to evade capture by local trappers and wildlife authorities, the Miami Herald reported.

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Tropical sunfish spotted in Highland waters

2 September 2018

A fish normally found in tropical waters has twice been spotted off the west coast of Scotland last week.

It is the fourth time this year that the sunfish has been recorded by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.

The ocean sunfish is the heaviest bony fish in the world, with an average weight of 2,200lbs (998kg).

The species was recorded on Friday by the crew of a fishing boat off the north coast of Skye. A sunfish was also seen off Ardnamurchan on Wednesday.

Sunfish, which drift with ocean currents, were once rarely seen in Scotland, but boat operators have reported more sightings in recent years, with August being the peak month.

They live on a diet of mostly jellyfish and swim at depths of up to nearly 2,000ft (610m).

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Black hairstreaks found miles from their heartland

This rare species was only discovered in 1828. Now the population is enjoying a boom

Patrick Barkham

Fri 29 Jun 2018 21.30 BSTLast modified on Fri 29 Jun 201822.56 BST

The black hairstreak is a dark, elusive and rather plain little butterfly. And yet it inspires great passion, and not just because of its rarity.

There’s something deeply restful and lovely about this midsummer insect, especially when it lets you creep close and admire it sunning itself on blackthorn.

It only flies for a couple of weeks in June, and guidebooks say it is only found in middle England woodlands, roughly between Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire.

But this butterfly has bamboozled experts since it was belatedly discovered in 1828 and this June has seen a glorious population explosion. Black hairstreaks have been discovered on many new sites, including miles from their heartland – in East Sussex.

Readon

Shark sighted off Majorca, first great white there in 40 years

30 June 2018

For the first time in more than 40 years, a great white shark has been recorded swimming off the Spanish Mediterranean island of Majorca.

A wildlife conservation group captured footage of the shark wandering around the Cabrera archipelago.

The last confirmed sighting of such a fish in the Balearic Islands was by a fisherman in 1976.

Great whites can weigh up to two tonnes, grow to lengths of 20ft (6m) and reach speeds of 40km/h (25mph).

"The presence of great white sharks in Spanish waters has been a constant rumour," biologist and documentary maker Fernando López-Mirones told Efe news agency.

"However, we've been unable to document their presence for many years."

Scientists with Spanish conservation group Alnitak recorded the shark for over an hour.

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A Giant Blue Whale Just Turned Up In the Red Sea

By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer | May 31, 2018 02:23pm ET

A blue whale has turned up in the Red Sea, the long spit of water separating Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea from the Arabian Peninsula.

It's the first time a blue whale has ever been seen in the Red Sea, according to a statement from Egyptian Environmental Minister Khaled Fahmy, as reported today (May 31) by the news outlet Egypt Independent. (The Egyptian government is currently monitoring the marine mammal, the statement added.) Israeli newspapers also reported that the whale had passed close to the Israeli Red Sea city of Eilat.

Blue whales turn up all over the world, and aren't limited to any specific body of ocean water, according to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). However, the massive mammals tend to migrate toward cooler polar waters in the summer, and avoid shallow coastal areas all year round.

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A Giant Blue Whale Just Turned Up In the Red Sea

By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer | May 31, 2018 02:23pm ET

A blue whale has turned up in the Red Sea, the long spit of water separating Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea from the Arabian Peninsula.

It's the first time a blue whale has ever been seen in the Red Sea, according to a statement from Egyptian Environmental Minister Khaled Fahmy, as reported today (May 31) by the news outlet Egypt Independent. (The Egyptian government is currently monitoring the marine mammal, the statement added.) Israeli newspapers also reported that the whale had passed close to the Israeli Red Sea city of Eilat.

Blue whales turn up all over the world, and aren't limited to any specific body of ocean water, according to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). However, the massive mammals tend to migrate toward cooler polar waters in the summer, and avoid shallow coastal areas all year round.

Continued

New Zealand 'marine heatwave' brings tropical fish from 3,000km away

Out-of-place Queensland groper seen off New Zealand coast after water temperatures soared

Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin

Tue 29 May 2018 01.53 BSTLast modified on Tue 29 May 2018 03.16 BST

Rare tropical fish from Australia have been spotted in New Zealand waters after a record-breaking hot summer and warm ocean temperatures lured the creatures across the Tasman sea.

The Queensland groper, also known as the giant grouper, is the aquatic emblem of the state and was spotted swimming around the wreck of the HMNZ Canterbury in the Bay of Islands on Sunday, more than 3,000 kilometres away from its usual cruising spots on the coral reefs and estuaries off the Queensland coast.

New Zealand experienced its hottest summer on record this year, largely propelled by a “marine heatwave” during which sea temperatures rose as much as six degrees in some areas, and 2-4 in the region where the groper was spotted.

Figures released by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research found the average temperature during January was 20.3C – more than three degrees above normal.

The Queensland groper, a bony fish that can grow up to three metres long and weigh 600kg, is a protected species in Australia, was spotted and recorded by a skipper from Paihia Dive, a small coastal town in the far north of the country.

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Alligators on the beach? Killer whales in rivers? Get used to it

Large predators once hunted to near-extinction are showing up in unexpected places

Date: May 7, 2018

Source: Duke University

Summary:

Sightings of alligators and other large predators in places where conventional wisdom says they 'shouldn't be' have increased in recent years, in large part because local populations, once hunted to near-extinction, are rebounding. A new article finds that far from being outliers, these sightings signify the return of highly adaptable predators to prime hunting grounds they occupied long ago -- a trend that opens new opportunities for future conservation.

Read on 

Killer whales seen in river Clyde

Pod of orcas spotted between Dunoon and Gourock, thought to be hunting seals or porpoises

Matthew Taylor

Sun 22 Apr 2018 14.32 BSTLast modified on Mon 23 Apr 2018 00.55 BST

A pod of killer whales has been spotted in the river Clyde apparently hunting seals or porpoises.

Images and videos have been posted on social media over the weekend of about half a dozen killer whales, or orcas, between Dunoon and Gourock.

Lindsay Moss was on a Western Ferries service on Saturday when they made an appearance. Her footage shows three orcas, including what appears to be a youngster, rising to the surface before disappearing again.

Orcas are sociable animals that travel in groups of up to 50. Although they are frequently seen near Arran in the Firth of Clyde, they have not been regular visitors to the upper Clyde for many years, experts say.

It is thought they were attracted to the area due to its abundance of food – porpoises and seals.

In the UK, killer whales are seen most regularly around the Shetland and Orkney islands.

Source